
WILBUR CHAPM 








Glass 'EY l ?- \ 

Book —h-i 


4 







/ 


« 




























POWER 


Works of 

J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D. 


The Personal Touch. 


12 mo. Cloth , net, joc. 

Power. Received Te the Holy Ghost ? 

16 mo. Cloth , net, 50c. 

Revival Sermons. 


12 mo. Cloth, net, $1.00. 

Pocket Sermons. 

18 mo. Art Boards, net , 25c. Leather, net, 50c. 


Another Mile, and Other Addresses . 

12 mo. Paper, net, 25c. Cloth, net, 75c. 

The Power of a Surrendered Life. 

Turning Back at Kadesh-Barnea. 

16 mo. Paper, 15c. Cloth, net, joc. 

And Peter, and Other Sermons. 

12 mo. Paper, iyc. Cloth f net, joc. 

The Lost Crown. 

12 mo. Paper, 15c. Cloth , net, 30c. 

The Ivory Palaces of the King. 

j6 mo. Cloth , net, 23c. 

S. H. Hadley of Water Street. 

A Miracle of Grace. Being the Life 
of S. H. Hadley of the Water Street 
Mission, New York. 

12 mo. Cloth, net, $1.23. 


“ Received Ye The Holy Ghost?” 


PO IV ER 


By 

J. WILBUR CHAPMAN, D. D. 



New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 


Copyright, 1894, 1912, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


XL &c 


New York: - 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 125 North Wabash Ave. 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 






&CI.A 305960 

HO.V 


*X.w 



FOREWORD 

ITH the exception of the first 



V V chapter, this book is a reprint of 
the little volume that first appeared in 
print under the title of “ Received Ye 
the Holy Ghost ? ” The book has been 
out of print for some little time, and 
though there has been a demand for it I 
have been so occupied as to make it im- 
possible for me to properly revise it so 
that it might be useful for the present 


time. 


The first chapter is an appeal for the 
Life of Surrender and is an introduction 


5 


FOREWORD 


to all that follows. The message is now 
sent out under the title of “ Power/’ be- 
cause both the publishers and myself 
have been requested to issue it in new 
form and title as better expressing the 
purpose of the work. 

Not long ago while in attendance 
upon a Bible Conference, I met a mis- 
sionary from Korea. She had read this 
book in its old form, and said it had 
completely transformed her life ; that to 
this message under God she owed all 
that she was as a Christian and urged 
that the little book be reissued. 

I hope this attempt to make more 
real the source of Christian Power 
may be helpful to Christian workers and 
especially to young people who are just 
beginning the Christian life. 

J. Wilbur Chapman. 


6 


CONTENTS 


CAP 

I. 

An Appeal 

page 

9 

II. 

How May I Know Him ? . 

• 3* 

III. 

How May I Receive Him ? 

• 65 

IV. 

What of the Result? 

. IOI 


7 










RECEIVED 

YE THE AN APPEAL 

HOLY GHOST? 


9 



Cap I AN APPEAL 

" But first gave their own selves unto the Lord." 
— 2 Cor. v. 8. 

I KNOW of a minister in one of our 
great cities, who, when one of the 
wealthy men in his congregation was 
obliged to leave home for a season, said 
to him, “ I will give you the privilege 
for thirty days of dispensing my char- 
ities. All you need to do is just to listen 
to the appeals, investigate the stories 
where investigation is necessary, sign 
your name to a slip of paper, send it to 
my secretary and he will return to you 
the money required.” 

11 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 

For the period of thirty days he sat in 
the office of this wealthy man and listened 
to the stories of the people and gave 
them help. When he was telling his 
experience he said, “ I think I had al- 
most the best time of my life, for it is 
such an easy thing to give away an- 
other man’s money, but it is quite an- 
other matter to give away your own.” 
This practical story is illustrated in the 
text, “ But first gave their own selves 
to the Lord,” and is the secret of holy 
living and consecrated giving. You 
really are not your own if you are a 
Christian, because God gave you to 
Christ in sacred covenant. You are not 
your own because you gave yourself to 
Christ. There was a time when you 
said, “ I yield. I can hold out no more ” ; 
and you are not your own, because 
Christ purchased you. He redeemed 
12 


AN APPEAL 


you, not with corruptible things such as 
silver and gold, but with his own precious 
blood. If your money is not your own, 
but his, it ought to be a very easy thing 
to give it away. If your time is not 
your own, but his, it ought to be a great 
joy to use it for him. And if your 
home is not your own, but his, and you 
simply hold it in trust for him, it ought 
to be a delight to make your home pleas- 
ing to him. 

So I emphasize the word “ first." 
« First gave their own selves to the 
Lord." That is the secret of victory 
over sin, it is the secret of right relations 
with God and Man, the secret of power 
with God, and with men. The Apostle 
Paul had the privilege of establishing 
the Church in Corinth. In many re- 
spects Corinth was a great city, but it 
was exceedingly wicked, and after Paul 
13 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 

had established the Church and gone 
away from the city, news came to him 
that while many of the members of the 
Church were faithful, some were denying 
the Lord that bought them and were 
drifting away from the high ideals which 
he had been presenting to them. The 
Apostle's heart is sore, and he writes to 
them his second epistle. In order to 
correct their mistakes he gave them a 
sharp warning. He said, “ If I come 
again I will not spare you.” He seeks 
in this second epistle, by every sort of 
illustration and argument, to lead them 
away from unholy and unrighteous liv- 
ing, and to inspire them to live in such 
a way as to be an honor to Jesus, and 
to his Father. He gave them certain 
striking illustrations. He said, “ For ye 
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that, though he was rich, yet for your 
14 


AN APPEAL 


sakes he became poor, that ye through 
his poverty might be rich.” 

He was teaching them, by using so 
great an illustration, that if they would 
only yield themselves to Christ and 
serve him, they could not drift into sin. 
Then he gave his own experience as a 
tent-maker, and how as he preached he 
had dwelt with the tent-makers. It was 
as if he had said, “ I counted no sacrifice 
too great to make for you.” If we 
should find the most cultured scholar of 
the day going from his home to live in 
the slums just because he thought he 
could make other people better, the daily 
press would ring with his praise. The 
highest illustration of this that has ever 
been given we find in Jesus of whom it 
was said, « Ye know the grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was 
rich, yet for your sakes he became 
15 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


poor.” And we find a similar illustra- 
tion in the Apostle living as a tent-maker 
and sacrificing himself, if only God 
might work through him for his glory. 

It is only through the surrendered 
life that God can work. God cannot 
use you in any special way if you are 
holding back part of your life from him. 
If there is one little chamber of which 
you hold the key, and into which God 
has not fully entered, he cannot greatly 
use you. Your intellectuality may be 
great, your genius may be superb, your 
social standing may be beyond question. 
But God does not use people for these 
reasons. God uses them when he has 
all there is of them, and only then. 
The minister who has yielded almost all 
to Jesus, but is holding back just a little, 
is because of this fact standing in the 
way of the receipt of fullness of power. 

16 


AN APPEAL 


I am sure I can give him the secret of 
God's mighty working in a human life. 
Let him have the unconditional right of 
way. 

I said one day to a great business 
man, “ How long would you keep a man 
in your employ if you knew he was half 
for you and half for your competitor ? ” 
He said, " I should keep him until I 
found it out/' Stepping over to his 
private desk he took out a piece of 
paper and handed it to me, and I read 
an iron-clad agreement, which stated 
that whenever a man became part of 
this great business concern, he practi 
cally said to the representative of the 
company, “ All my influence is yours, 
all my strength is yours, all the power I 
have is yours.” And the merchant said 
to me, “ When a man signs that contract, 
we give him the right to use our name, 
17 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 

We could not give him this privilege if 
we could not control him." 

I dare say there are some men even 
in the pulpit to-day who have not the 
power of God because God cannot con- 
trol them. There is many a man in the 
pew who is shorn of power because God 
has not the right of way in his life. 
There is many a Sunday-school teacher 
whose words are like sounding brass or a 
tinkling cymbal, because God does not 
fully control the life. This is the secret 
of power. “ First gave their own selves 
to the Lord." But the best illustration 
is that which centers in the text. Paul 
is telling the Corinthian Christians that 
the churches of Macedonia had been 
giving to the poor saints in Jerusalem. 
These Christians knew quite well that 
the churches of Macedonia had been re- 
duced to poverty. They had little or 
18 


AN APPEAL 


none of this world’s goods, and yet St. 
Paul says they gave with great liberality. 
And it is as if Paul had said, “ I will tell 
you why they gave notwithstanding their 
poverty, they first gave their own selves 
to the Lord." 

There are several things I should like 
to say about this giving of ourselves. 
It must be voluntary. Do not yield be- 
cause of the influence of a friend but 
because of your great need. You must 
come step by step to the place where 
you will say, “ I will give myself to God 
voluntarily, not because of the power of 
the preaching, and not because of the 
singing by which I am moved ; I will do 
it because I know it is right and I am not 
right, and with all my heart I long to be." 

It must be unselfish giving. I once 
heard a friend preach a sermon in which 
he said that many people had an idea 
19 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


that if they should surrender to God 
they would at once have a marked ex- 
perience of blessing and power ; they 
would be immediately filled with the 
Spirit and conspicuously used. He said 
that the average minister had an idea 
that if he surrendered to God and be- 
came filled with his Spirit he would 
become a man of power. “ And/' said 
he, “ he will. But we must not mark 
out the channel in which power is to 
flow. Peter was filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and preached his sermon at Pen- 
tecost, and thousands were saved. But 
Stephen was filled with the Holy Ghost 
and was stoned to death." I wonder 
how many of us would say, “ Oh, God, 
here is my life. I give it to thee," if 
we knew that because of this and be- 
cause of what we became, we would be 
stoned to death. If it meant social ostra- 
20 


AN APPEAL 


cism, would you do it ? If it meant suf- 
fering, would you come to the place of 
surrender ? If there was a price to pay, 
would you pay it ? The men and 
women who marched to the stake in 
other days came to God in that way. 
It must be unselfish giving. 

It must be an irrevocable yielding. 
You cannot take the gift back. I re- 
member once seeing my little boy walk 
across the nursery with his arms full of 
his playthings, and I saw him drop them 
down on his mother’s knees. He said, 
“ I’m going to give you these things," 
and then he went off about his play. 
Ten or fifteen minutes later, however, he 
came back, and picking up the play- 
things took them away. Is that the way 
you gave yourself to God ? 

There was a mighty mission on ; the 
Spirit of God was moving the people ; 

21 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


you were deeply stirred, and you said 
“ Oh, Lord, I give myself to thee.” But 
you came back to the altar and took the 
gift away. That is not consecration. 
We must offer an irrevocable gift. 

The ideal that I am presenting is a 
high one, but we must have a high ideal 
in living. You know that you never 
rise higher than your ideal, but remem- 
ber, this life has only to be lived a day 
at a time. If I should say to myself, 
“ I must live a higher Christian life for 
seven long days,” I might stumble and 
fall ; but if I say, “ 1 am going to live a 
sincere consistent Christian life this day, 
with God’s help,” I am sure I can do it. 
It is a high ideal but you need only live 
it a day at a time, and the days will be- 
come weeks and then grow into years, 
and it will become the habit of your 
life to please him. 


22 


AN APPEAL 


“ First they gave their own selves 
unto the Lord.” It is the only life that 
counts. During the early part of my 
ministry I was the pastor of a rich con- 
servative church. One day Mr. Moody 
came into my life. Putting his hand on 
my shoulder he said, “ You are making 
a mistake in your ministry ; what you are 
doing does not count for much. Your 
preaching does not win souls. I say it to 
you in all kindness.” At the time the 
rebuke hurt me, but I thought about it 
for days and weeks, and, as I have said 
elsewhere, on the sixteenth day of Oc- 
tober, 1892, I came to the place where, 
under the influence of Mr. Moody, I said, 
“ Oh, God, I am willing to be made will- 
ing about everything,” and if there has 
been any victory in my preaching; if 
there has been any helpfulness in my 
ministry; if there has been any ability 
23 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


to win souls, I know when the change 
came. It is the only life that counts. 


“ No service in itself is small, 

None great, though earth it fill. 

But that is small which seeks its own, 
That great, which seeks God’s will.” 


I would that God would give me some 
words to say that would bring some man 
or woman to the place where he or she 
would say, “ Lord, I give myself to thee.” 
It is not an easy thing to do. It will call 
for a struggle. The minister who wrote 
to me the other day saying, “ My whole 
ministry has been changed since my 
complete surrender,” knows it is not 
easy. I would not ask you to do it if it 
were easy ; it will call for a struggle. 

“ Oh, the bitter shame and sorrow, 

That a time could ever be, 

When I proudly said to Jesus 
‘ All of self and none of thee.’ 


24 


AN APPEAL 


“ Yet, he found me : I beheld him 
Bleeding on the accursed tree : 

And my wistful heart said faintly, 

* Some of self, and some of thee.’ 

“ Day by day, his tender mercy, 

Healing, helping, full and free, 

Brought me lower, while I whispered, 

‘ Less of self, and more of thee.’ 

“ Higher than the highest heaven, 

Deeper than the deepest sea, 

Lord, thy love at last has conquered ; 

* None of self, and all of thee.’ ” 

Some one may be saying, “ But will it 
pay ‘ " If I could tell the personal ex- 
periences of every Christian who has thus 
yielded I should be able to say for them, 
“ It certainly has paid.” Let us ask the 
men who are dead whether it pays or 
not. William Carey, did it pay ? And 
I hear William Carey from the realms of 
glory say, “ Count it all joy in the service 
of Christ.” Hudson Taylor, did it pay ? 
And I can hear him tell how when he 
25 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 

first came to Christ, he found himself 
saying, “ Oh, God, use me.” And one 
day God came to him and said, “ I have 
made up my mind to save inland China, 
and if you will come and walk with me, 
I will do this work through you.” And 
I can hear Hudson Taylor say to-day, 
“ Count it all joy.” Catherine Booth, 
did it pay? When you lacked some 
of the necessities of life, when they 
misunderstood your husband, when your 
children did not have what other people’s 
children had, when you had given up 
everything for Jesus, tell me, did it pay? 
And I think I hear her say with that 
voice which used to thrill the multitude, 
“Count it all joy.” Dwight L. Moody, 
did it pay? Tell me, did it pay? I 
think I see that great kindly face that 
I loved so well. I have seen him preach 
with the fire of heaven illuminating his 
26 


AN APPEAL 


countenance, with the tears blinding his 
eyes, when he could scarcely speak for 
sobs ; and hundreds cried out, “ What 
must we do to be saved ? ” I think I 
hear him saying, “ Count it all joy.” 
Does it pay ? It is the only life that 
does pay. Do not let an hour pass with- 
out yielding. 

In Australia they told me how some- 
times when men were traveling in the 
great interior of the continent, which 
was a veritable desert, they would keep 
close to a telegraph line, so that if there 
was any danger of their not reaching 
their destination they could snip the 
wire, and then the people coming to 
search for the breakage would find them. 
They told me of a man who once started 
out on a long journey with his bicycle, 
and the days passed by, and he did not 
arrive at his destination. All trace of 


27 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 

him had been lost. Finally men went 
out to seek for him. They came across 
the trail of his bicycle and followed it. 
Then they arrived at the place where he 
had dismounted, and shortly afterward 
they came to the bicycle that had been 
thrown aside. They hurried on with 
feverish haste, and came to the place 
where he had dropped on his hands and 
knees near the telegraph line. They 
saw how he had dragged himself through 
the sand, and a little further on they found 
the man — dead. A pair of wire snippers 
were in his hand and he was almost 
touching the telegraph pole. So near! 
and yet he had failed. 

I believe there are men and women 
whose eyes are on this page who are as 
near to power as that. I plead with 
you. First give your own selves to the 
Lord. First — while the voice of God is 
28 


AN APPEAL 


heard speaking. First — while the fields 
are white unto the harvest. First — 
while the flush of health is upon you. 
First — while your family circle is un- 
broken. Do not refuse. Yield to God. 
He is calling you. Come. First — while 
your little children are at your knee. 
First — before age has weakened you. 
First — before eternity breaks upon you. 
God's voice is calling. Eternity is 
drawing near. First — before you face 
the judgment seat of Christ. 

Now that I have made the appeal for 
the Life of Surrender, which has been 
called by others the Life of Privilege, 
the Life of Blessing and the Life of 
Victory, I would like to state that 
power cannot be disassociated from the 
Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy 
Spirit of God. He convicts us of sin, 
he reveals Chris: to us, he makes us 
29 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 

sensible of our weakness as children of 
God. He interprets to us the Scriptures, 
and especially those Scriptures which 
have to do with the Life of Blessing. 
We must therefore become acquainted 
with him, and it is in order that we 
may know him better that the following 
chapters are written. 

However, keep this in mind, that in 
proportion as we honor Jesus the Spirit 
of God will be present with us. May we 
come therefore to know him of whom 
the Apostle was speaking when he said, 
“Ye shall receive power after that the 
Holy Ghost is come upon you.” 


30 


RECEIVED how may 

YE THE I KNOW HIM? 

HOLY GHOST ? 


31 





Cap II 


HOW MAY 
I KNOW HIM? 


* ‘Afterward he brought me again unto the door of 
the house ; and, behold, waters issued out from un- 
der the threshold of the house eastward.” — Ezek. 
xlvii. I. 


OTHING could be more important, 



^ in these days, than a clear discern- 
ment of the character and the work of the 
Holy Spirit. There is perhaps more ig- 
norance concerning him than any other 
part of revealed truth. By many he is 
regarded as an undefinable influence. 
By many others he is supposed to come 


33 



RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


and go in a vague sort of way; now 
with the Christian and now absent from 
him ; to-day with the church, to-morrow 
in some distant part of the world at 
work. All this is unscriptural, and must 
grieve him, who as certainly ABIDES 
with the true child of God as that Jesus 
died and arose again. 

To know him aright has always meant 
POWER. To be ignorant of him has al- 
ways meant confusion and ultimate de- 
feat. The promise is, “Ye shall receive 
POWER, the Holy Ghost coming upon 
you.” It is a possible thing for our 
creed to outrun our intelligence. We say 
again and again, “ I believe in the Holy 
Ghost.” Is it really true? With a sin- 
gle church believing in him we might 
move the world for God. 

There is both ignorance and indif- 
34 


HO IV MAY / KNOW HIM? 


ference concerning him, and the reason 
is most apparent. This is the “ dispen- 
sation of the Spirit.” It was ushered 
in at Pentecost. And Satan very well 
knows that so long as he can keep us 
in doubt as to the Spirit's work, or 
mystified as to his personality or pres- 
ence, just so long he has nothing in us 
to fear. He cares not for your intel- 
lectual greatness — he can make a very 
snare of it — but he trembles when he 
sees one FILLED WITH THE HOLY 

Ghost. 

Three propositions I would be glad to 
impress upon the mind, and in the light 
of them we shall study together the third 
person of the TRINITY : First , he has a 
personality. I might present many ar- 
guments to prove my statement. What 
stronger could there be than the words 
35 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


of our Lord himself? — “ And I will pray 
the Father, and he shall give you an- 
other Comforter, that he may abide with 
you forever ; even the Spirit of truth ; 
whom the world cannot receive, because 
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : 
but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with 
you, and shall be in you.” (John xiv. 
16, 17.) Notice the word “another.” 
This indicates that he is to take the place 
of Jesus himself. Could anything less 
than a person take the place of a per- 
son ? Notice also the personal pronouns 
repeated as the Master speaks of the 
Comforter. Refer also to John xvi. 13, 
14, where the pronouns are again re- 
peated, and then read what Paul writes 
to the Ephesians : “ Grieve not the 

Holy Spirit of God.” (Eph. iv. 30.) 
You surely cannot grieve an influence, 
36 


HOW MAY I KNOW HIM? 


and this is all that some would have 
us believe him to be. Either they 
are mistaken or the Apostle is in error. 
Which position do you take? Second, 
this is his dispensation. This being true 
we need not wait to be filled with all 
his fullness. Some have thought this 
necessary, and have quoted the experi- 
ence of the waiting disciples at Pente- 
cost as a proof ; but it is to be remem- 
bered that they were waiting for the 
coming in of a dispensation, while we 
live in it. The Holy Ghost is in no 
place said to have left the world after 
Pentecost. Third, he will fill us when 
we have fulfilled the conditions. These 
will be explained later, but in a word 
they are as follows : First, make an un- 
conditional surrender to him, and let him 
abide in you, not because it is his work 
37 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


to do so, but because you have bidden 
him. Throw open every door of your 
nature, and give him undisputed pos- 
session. Second, believe his promise: 
“That we might receive the promise of 
the Spirit through faith." (Gal. iii. 14.) 
Do these things, then trust him to do 
his work. He is no respecter of persons. 
I had in a former parish a young Irish- 
man ; all would declare him to be igno- 
rant, and he was ; but God marvelously 
used him. This was the secret. With 
a heart burdened for the men of the 
city, I called together a few of the men 
of the church, and laying before them 
the plan I had in mind, told them first 
of all that we could do nothing with- 
out the " infilling of the Holy Ghost.” 
When this had been explained I noticed 
this man leave the room. He did not 
38 


HOW MAY I KNOW HIM ? 


return while the meeting was in session. 
When I sought him I found him in one 
of the lower rooms of the church, liter- 
ally on his face before God. He was in 
prayer. I shall never forget his peti- 
tion : “ O God, I plead with thee for this 
blessing;” then, as if God were showing 
him what was in the way, he said : “ My 
Father, I will give up every known sin, 
only I plead with thee for power;” and 
then, as if his individual sins were pass- 
ing before him, he said again and again : 
“ I will give them up ; I will give them 
up.” Then, without any emotion, he 
rose from his knees, turned his face 
heavenward, and simply said : “ And 
now I claim the blessing.” For the first 
time he became sensible of my pres- 
ence, and with a shining countenance 
he reached out his hands to clasp mine. 

39 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


You could feel the very presence of the 
Spirit as he said : “ I have received him ; 
I have received him.” And I believe he 
had, for in the next few months he led 
more than sixty men into the kingdom 
of God. His whole life had been trans- 
formed. He has become a source of 
real strength in his city. We may differ 
as to the terms we use, but of this one 
thing we are all persuaded : there is 
awaiting many of us an enlarging vision 
of the Holy Ghost ; for many could say, 
as did the disciples at Ephesus, “ We 
have not so much as heard whether there 
be any Holy Ghost.” (Acts xix. 2.) 
Whether we speak of this vision as a 
baptism, an infilling, or an anointing, 
may he show us himself, for we seek 
him and not a mere experience; the 
latter may be a thing of the moment, 
40 


HOW MAY I KNOW HIM ? 


the former abides forever. (John xiv. 

16.) 

The forty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel 
gives to me a beautiful figure of what 
the Holy Spirit is, and the work he does. 
There is something in the source of the 
river, something in the direction in which 
it runs, something in its increasing depth 
as it nears the sea, and something in its 
fruited banks to lead us to him of whom 
we study. First have in mind the tem- 
ple from which the river flows. It is 
suggestive. As you know, the temple 
in the Old Testament was divided into 
three main parts : first, the outer court, 
into which any child of Israel might 
make his way ; second, the holy place, 
where only the white-robed priests 
might walk to and fro ; and third, the 
41 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


holy of holies, where only the high priest 
might go, and that but once a year. This 
Old Testament temple typifies the tem- 
ple of which Paul speaks in the New 
Testament: “ Know ye not that ye are 
the temple of God, and that the Spirit 
of God dwelleth in you?” (i Cor. iii. 
1 6.) So the New Testament temple is 
yourself: “ Which temple ye are.” (i 
Cor. iii. 17.) There is likewise a three- 
fold division here. There is first the 
outer court, which corresponds to the 
body ; the second court is the soul, the 
third court is the spirit. There are 
some people who never live beyond the 
outer court ; but such do not understand 
what it is to live. It is a possible thing 
for the body to be controlled, or, at least, 
influenced by the Spirit, for we read : 
“ He that raised up Christ from the dead 
42 


HOW MAY l KNOW HIM? 


shall also quicken your mortal bodies 
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” 
(Rom. viii. u.) It is apparent to all 
that he works in the soul, that is, the 
real self, the “ego.” Here also the 
Spirit manifests himself, for we read: 
“ Seeing ye have purified your souls in 
obeying the truth through the Spirit.” 
(i Peter i. 22.) But all must be aware 
that there are experiences deeper than 
the soul, and thus we are led to the 
spirit; this is the “holy of holies.” It 
has been called “ the secret place of the 
Most High.” It is the place where God 
dwells. And here the Spirit works, for 
we read: “For ye are bought with a 
price: therefore glorify God in your 
body, and in your spirit, which are 
God’s.” (1 Cor. vi. 20.) And again: 
“ The Spirit himself beareth witness 
43 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


with our spirit, that we are the children 
of God.” (Rom. viii. 16.) And just as 
in the chapter to which reference has 
been made the sanctuary was so filled 
with the water that it rushed out by the 
way of the altar eastward, so we may 
be “ filled with the Spirit,” and so filled 
that there shall not only be communion, 
that is, for ourselves, but there may be 
the manifestation of power to others, 
illustrated in the flowing river. Our 
whole nature, spirit, soul and body, may 
be swayed by his presence. If the tem- 
ple pictures the real self, the man of 
to-day, then the water must stand for 
something. In the light of the Word of 
God, what would you say ? I am sure 
we are making no mistake when we say 
that the water typifies the Holy Ghost. 
We surely have the right to say as much, 
44 


HOW MAY l KNOW HIM? 


for Jesus himself said it. Speaking to 
the woman of Samaria he said : “ But 
whosoever drinketh of the water that I 
shall give him shall never thirst; but 
the water that I shall give him shall be 
in him a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life.” (John iv. 14.) This 
is the “indwelling Spirit.” But at the 
last day of the feast he made it still 
plainer when he said : “ He that believ- 
eth on me, as the Scripture hath said, 
out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water. (But this spake he of 
the Spirit, which they that believe on 
him should receive : for the Holy Ghost 
was not yet given; because that Jesus 
was not yet glorified.” (John vii. 38, 
39.) This is the river flowing out from 
the sanctuary, running through the des- 
ert, healing the waters of the sea of life. 

45 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


God often speaks to us by means of 
figures or types. This is an illustration. 
It may be both interesting and profit- 
able to present other emblems of the 
Spirit, for each will come to us with a 
particular lesson. 

I. THE WIND. 

Sometimes he is spoken of under the 
figure of the wind, and this is generally 
when we would present his quickening, 
powerful, penetrating influence. There 
are many things about it which may be 
mentioned, all of which help us to under- 
stand the work of the Spirit the better. 
First, the wind is invisible: “The wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hear- 
est the sound thereof, but thou canst not 
tell whence it cometh, and whither it go- 
eth : so is every one that is born of the 
46 


HOW MAY / KNOW HIM ? 


Spirit .* * (John iii. 8.) To my mind this 
beautifully presents to us one of the 
chief traits of the Spirit. He came not 
to draw attention to himself, but to the 
Son. We are told in another place con- 
cerning the Son, that he “ made himself 
of no reputation, and took upon himself 
the form of a servant, and was made in 
the likeness of men.” (Phil. ii. 7.) But 
herein was the love of the Spirit made 
manifest, for he came into the world 
without even the form of a servant. 
Suppose he had become incarnate, 
would there not have been a tempta- 
tion to forget the incarnate Son in the 
contemplation of the incarnate Spirit? 
The Holy Ghost always magnifies the 
Lord Jesus Christ ,just as the river from 
the sanctuary rail eastward. Second , 
the wind is penetrating. It is said 
47 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


that “nature abhors a vacuum.” This 
is true, but it is likewise true that the 
Spirit abhors a vacuum, and we may- 
rest assured that just so soon as the 
room is made for him he will fill us to 
overflowing. He abides with us now, 
but we may never feel the blessedness 
of his presence till we have forsaken all 
sin, surrendered all selfishness ; for self- 
ishness, sin, and worldliness cannot pos- 
sess the child of God, if we would have 
the Spirit in his fullness. Third , the 

wind is powerful. A perfect illustra- 
tion is found in the valley of dry bones. 
The valley was filled with the bones of 
the dead when the word of the Lord 
came to his servant to prophesy. John 
McNeil says he can imagine that Ezekiel 
looked down and he was afraid to say 
“ Yes ” ; he looked up and he was afraid 
48 


HOW MAY / KNOW HIM? 


to say “ No ” ; and so he answtred, “ 0 
Lord God, thou knowest.” “ So I 
prophesied as I was commanded: and 
as I prophesied, there was a noise, and 
behold a shaking, and the bones came to- 
gether, bone to bone. And when I be- 
held, lo, the sinews and the flesh came 
up upon them, and the skin covered 
them above : but there was no breath in 
them. Then he said unto me, Prophesy 
unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, 
and say to the wind, Thus saith the 
Lord God ; Come from the four winds, 
O breath, and breathe upon these slain, 
that they may live. So I prophesied 
as he commanded me, and the breath 
came into them, and they lived, and 
stood up upon their feet, an exceeding 
great army.” (Ezek. xxxvii. 7 - 10 .) 
Surely this is a picture of all that the 
49 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


church might be, if we were, as individ- 
uals, “ filled with the Spirit.” 

II. THE DOVE. 

The dove is an emblem of the Holy 
Spirit, telling of his loving, tender, com- 
forting work. This, of all the family of 
birds, is the most lovely. Its affection 
for its mate is almost pathetic. In its 
choice of a home, in the company it 
keeps, in its food, as well as in its very 
self, it is a beautiful picture of much 
that the Spirit may be in us. It is very 
helpful to me to know that when we 
receive him fully we become partakers 
of his nature. One could not be petu- 
lant, impatient, censorious, disagreeable, 
and be filled with his fullness. For when 
of his fullness we have received, we 
50 


HOW MAY / KNOW HIM? 


have " grace for grace,” and what can 
this mean but a duplication of graces? 
(John i. 1 6.) In Paul’s letter to the 
Galatians we read : “ But the fruit of 
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffer- 
ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance : against such there is 
no law.” (Gal. v. 22, 23.) You will 
notice that the word “ fruit” is used in 
the singular number, and the inference 
must be that when we give ourselves up 
to the Spirit we have, not one of these 
graces, but all of them. First, the dove 
is a patient bird. Surely here it brings 
us a lesson of the Spirit. We have 
grieved him a thousand times, and yet 
he is the same tender, patient Spirit. 
As another has said : “ Look at the way 
he is grieved.” “ Let no corrupt com- 
munication proceed out of your mouth, 
51 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


but that which is good to the use of 
edifying, that it may minister grace to 
the hearers. And grieve not the Holy 
Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto 
the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, 
and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and 
evil speaking, be put away from you, 
with all malice : and be ye kind one to 
another, tender-hearted, forgiving one 
another, even as God for Christ’s sake 
hath forgiven you.” (Eph. iv. 29-32.) 
Compare this with the malice and evil 
speaking and censoriousness and slan- 
der that are notoriously common among 
professing Christians : we no longer 
wonder that the Holy Spirit is grieved. 
Every idle word, every unkind ex- 
pression, every unholy thought grieves 
him, yet he tarries, waiting, yearning 
to fill us with his blessed presence 
52 


HOW MAY / KNOW HIM? 


and power. Second, the dove is a 
loving bird. We are well acquainted 
with the thought that God the Father 
loves us, and all must be sensible of the 
love of the Son, but of the love of the 
Spirit we are not so well informed. Yet 
Paul writes: “Now I beseech you, 
brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s 
sake, and for the love of the Spirit, 
that ye strive together with me in your 
prayers to God for me.” (Rom. xv. 
30.) “ The love of the Spirit for every 

sinner who trusts in Christ for salvation 
can be measured only by the infinite 
and eternal love of the Father, and by 
the intense, self-sacrificing, boundless, 
and unchanging love of the Son.” The 
first mention of the Spirit in the Old 
Testament suggests his love. We read : 
“ And the Spirit moved upon the face 
53 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


of the waters.” (Gen. i. 2.) The word 
“ moved ” in the Hebrew is literally 
“ brooded,” giving us the figure of the 
mother-bird hovering over her young ; 
and if the word is studied more closely, 
it means to be “tremulous with love.” 
This is the first picture, and he is “ the 
same yesterday, to-day, and forever.” 
To be “filled with the Spirit” thus 
means to be filled with this spirit. 
What a transformation it would mean 
to the individual and to the church ! It 
would mean the reclaiming of the lost. 
In Isaiah we read : “ But thou hast in 
love to my soul delivered it from the 
pit of corruption” (Isa. xxxviii. 17), and 
in the margin you read that it means 
“ thou hast loved up my soul from the 
pit.” It would mean the winning of 
souls. 


54 


HOW MAY I KNOW HIM ? 


It may be interesting to know that 
one of the first Salvation Army converts 
was thus won in France. Miss Booth 
had been singing and speaking for 
weeks. The people crowded around 
her only for the purpose of ridicule. At 
last, one evening when she had told her 
story with all the pathos with which 
she was capable, she went down from the 
platform and pushed her way through 
the crowd till she reached a fallen girl 
sitting in the rear of the room. She 
threw her arms about her neck and 
kissed her first upon one cheek, then 
upon the other, and she said as she did 
so, “ My dear sister, I would that I 
could love you into the kingdom.” The 
girl looked up in a startled way; pure 
lips like those had not touched her 
cheeks in many a day. She burst into 
55 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


tears. Miss Booth led her sobbing to 
the penitent form, where with true re- 
pentance she cried out for forgiveness. 
God saved her and she has been a good 
soldier ever since. Oh, that the church 
might be filled with this spirit! 

“Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, 

With all thy quickening powers : 

Come, shed abroad a Saviour’s love, 

And that shall kindle ours.” 

III. THE OIL. 

When God would reveal to us the 
healing, comforting, illuminating, and 
consecrating influences of the Spirit, he 
directs our minds to the oil, which 
shadows forth these characteristics. In 
a part of the description of the ancient 
tabernacle you read this sentence : “ Oil 
for the light.” (Ex. xxxv. 8.) This sug- 
gests the illustration another has used, 
56 


HOW MAY 1 KNOIV HIM? 


letting the oil represent the Spirit, the 
wick the Christian, and the light stand 
for the result of the union of the two. 
There may be an abundance of oil and 
a plentiful supply of wick — there can- 
not be light until the two are brought 
together. I know the Spirit abides in 
us, and will forever, but there can never 
be a manifestation of his power till by 
the consent of our wills he has undis- 
puted possession. The two may be 
brought together, and for a time the 
light is brilliant, but in a little while it 
is dim and flickering, and every house- 
- keeper can understand the difficulty — 
the wick has become incrusted and must 
be trimmed. It is not enough for us to 
be right with God to-day, that we may 
have a manifestation of his power — we 
must KEEP RIGHT. The secret may be 
57 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


found in one sentence : “ Confess your 
sins instantly.” Even if the oil and the 
wick be brought together, there may be 
still little or no light, and the difficulty 
is, that there is a knot in the wick. It is 
not enough that the Spirit abide with 
us — this he does. The heart must be 
right in the sight of God. This was the 
difficulty with Simon the sorcerer. (Acts 
viii. 9-13.) When he tried to purchase 
with money the power of the Holy 
Ghost, he failed, because his heart was 
not right. We have, however, the priv- 
ilege of believing that when the heart is 
right we have the very fullness of God 
himself. He is sometimes said to be 
the ‘'oil to make the face shine.” (Ps. 
civ. 15.) It is not possible to be filled 
with the Holy Ghost and then simply 
delight in the fact ourselves. God 


HOW MAY I KNOW HIM ? 

never bestows such a gift that we may 
consume it upon our own lusts. He is 
the outflowing river, and also reveals 
himself in the shining countenance. He 
is called the “ oil of gladness.” “ There- 
fore God, thy God, hath anointed thee 
with the oil of gladness above thy fel- 
lows.” (Ps. xlv. 7.) It is a most com- 
forting thought that Satan cannot rob 
us of our life, for that is “ hid with 
Christ in God.” But he may deprive us 
of our JOY. It has been said that it is 
the work of Christ to bring us to heaven, 
but it is the work of the Spirit to bring 
heaven to us now. The Psalmist tells 
us: “In thy presence is fullness of joy” 
(Ps. xvi. 1 1 ) ; and since it is the work 
of the Spirit to lead us into God’s pres- 
ence, that means just one thing, namely, 
HEAVEN. 

59 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


IV. THE WATER. 

Water is typical of many things in 
the Bible. Sometimes it stands for 
judgment, sometimes for the Bible it- 
self ; but most frequently for the Holy 
Ghost does it stand as a type. Very 
many things may be said of the water, 
and the same things apply to the Holy 
Spirit. 

First, the water is free. We may have 
it without money and without price. 
There is no truer thought than this 
about the Spirit. To rich or poor, to 
wise or ignorant, he will come with all 
his fullness. “ By grace are we saved,” 
and “ by grace are we filled with his 
blessed presence.” Second, the water 
is refreshing. " He leadeth me beside 
the still waters.” (Ps. xxiii. 2.) When 
60 


HOW MAY / KNOW HIM ? 


the journey is long, and the way dusty 
and hard to travel, and we are worn 
and weary, what is more refreshing than 
the springs o' water ? We stoop to drink 
and push out on our way rejoicing. All 
that the water is to the traveler, yea, a 
thousand times more, the Spirit of God 
is to the weary ones. The water in us 
is a well “ springing up.” It comes 
from the throne, it rises again to its 
source, for water always seeks its own 
level; and here is the thought of com- 
munion that is always refreshing. The 
water flowing out from us is a river, and 
that does not flow for itself, but for 
others. Thus the Spirit always leads 
us. And who has not found that in 
living for others he has made his own 
way brighter and his own path easier 
to travel? What is this but the very 
61 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


best of refreshment? Third, the water 
is cleansing . I am well aware that it is 

the work of the blood of Jesus Christ 
to “ cleanse from all sin,” but it is the 
work of the Spirit to bring that work 
to remembrance, so we may speak of 
him as cleansing. The word “cleans- 
ing” has several different meanings in the 
Word of God. Sometimes it is katha - 
ros, which means to “clear up.” This 
must have been in Paul’s mind when he 
said: “Be careful for nothing; but in 
everything by prayer and supplication 
with thanksgiving let your requests be 
made known unto God. And the peace 
of God, which passeth all understand- 
ing, shall keep your hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus.” (Phil. iv. 6, 7.) 
Careful for nothing, prayerful for every- 
thing, thankful for anything, as another 
62 


HOW MAY I KNOW HIM? 


has said. Sometimes it is katharizo , 
which means to “ make clean ” ; and I 
am glad to know that this the Spirit of 
God surely does. We are told to keep 
ourselves “ unspotted from the world.” 
That would be most difficult were it 
not for the presence of the Spirit : with 
him it is easy. While in the mountains 
of Colorado, I noticed the miners going 
into the mine at the beginning of their 
“ shifts ” — their hands and faces were 
clean as they could make them ; but at 
the end of the “ shifts ” it would be 
difficult to tell whether they were by 
nature black or white, and yet there 
was one part of the face which was just 
as clean as when they entered the mine : 
that was the ball of the eve ; and that 
not because no impurities had touched 
it, for the mine was filled with such, 
03 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


but because there is a little tear-gland 
which keeps working all the time, and 
when the least speck touches the eye it 
washes it away. We are in the midst 
of sin and uncleanness in this world, but 
we may be kept clean every whit if we 
be only “ filled with the Spirit.” Keep 
in mind this river from the sanctuary, 
its source, its marvelous influence for 
good as it flows, and, not the least of 
all, keep in mind the direction in which 
it flowed. It will bear us on in our 
study till we are in the very “ secret of 
his presence.” 


04 


RECEIVED HOW MAY 

YE THE I RECEIVE HIM? 

HOLY GHOST ? 


65 





Cap III 


HOW MAY 
I RECEIVE HIM? 


“ That we might receive the promise of the Spirit 
through faith.” — Gal. iii. 14. 

nPHE Apostle Paul in his journeyings 
had come to Ephesus and found 
there a company of twelve men who 
were trying in a rude way to lead a 
holy life. They were John’s disciples. 
They had been instructed by him in the 
doctrine of repentance, and it is sup- 
posed that they were members of the 
church of Corinth. Possibly because 
there was evidently something lacking in 
67 



RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


their testimony, or, as others have sup- 
posed, because they may have been de- 
nying the power of God in their lives or 
conversation, the Apostle puts to them 
the question, “ Did ye receive the Holy 
Ghost when ye believed? And they 
said unto him, Nay, we did not so much 
as hear whether the Holy Ghost was.” 
(Acts xix. 2, R. V.) It is not for a mo- 
ment to be supposed that they were 
ignorant of the existence of the Spirit, 
for they were Jews, and their Scriptures 
teemed with references to his work. 
Then, too, they must have heard John 
speak of him. What they meant, un- 
doubtedly, was that they had not heard 
of him as the abiding Comforter ; and in 
this they were like many of the church- 
members of to-day. When Jesus as- 
cended the Spirit came. It was his 
68 


HO IV MAY I RECEIVE HIM? 


work, as it is now, to take up his abode 
in the hearts of believers. David might 
pray, “ Take not thy Holy Spirit from 
me ” (Ps. li. 1 1), but it would be a be- 
trayal of ignorance for the child of God 
to offer such a petition to-day. There 
is not a thought in the New Testa- 
ment suggesting that we “ may grieve 
him away.” What a difference there is 
between the Old Testament picture of 
the Spirit and the New Testament view 
of him ! There . he is represented as 
having his part in the work of creation : 
“ And the Spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters.” (Gen. i. 2.) 
He is there made known as the source 
of deliverance for his people : “ And 
the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, 
and he judged Israel, and went out to 
” (Judges iii. 10.) He was then, 
69 


war. 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


as now, the spring of all strength and 
courage : “ And the Spirit of the Lord 
came mightily upon him, and he rent him 
as he would have rent a kid.” (Judges 
xiv. 6.) But in the New Testament he 
is called the “ Comforter ” : “ And I 
will pray the Father, and he shall give 
you another Comforter.” (John xiv. 
1 6.) He is called the Teacher or Guide : 
“ When the Spirit of truth is come, he 
will guide you into .all truth.” (John 
xvi. 13.) 

There is an illustration of this truth 
in the Old Testament, which another 
has used. In the days of the flood, 
when Noah opened the window of 
the ark, the little dove flew over the 
waters, and finding no place to rest the 
sole of its foot, it came back again to 
the outstretched hand. He let it go 
70 


HOIV MAY I RECEIVE HIM ? 


forth a second time. Flying hither and 
thither, it came back with an olive leaf 
in its mouth. He let it go yet the third 
time, and it found a resting-place for 
the sole of its foot, and it returned no 
more forever. The dove generally typi- 
fies the Spirit. In this case it at least 
tells a story of his coming. He came 
in the Old Testament, breathing upon 
Moses, burning in Isaiah, speaking 
through the lips of Abraham, but in 
the old dispensation he is not said to 
abide. He came when Jesus was cruci- 
fied, and plucked, as it were, the olive 
leaf of peace from the cross (for the 
olive is the symbol of peace), and bore 
it back to the presence of God, saying, 
“ Peace hath been made in the death of 
the Son.” But he came the third time 
at Pentecost, with a rushing sound as 
71 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


of a mighty wind, and from that day to 
this he has never gone back. He has 
found his abiding-place in the hearts of 
believers. 

It is interesting to notice how he 
is manifested, S.nd how his coming is 
described. Sometimes he is repre- 
sented as “clothing” his chosen ones, 
as, for example : “ Tarry ye in the city 
of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with 
power from on high.” (Luke xxiv. 
49.) The word translated “ endued ” 
is elsewhere rendered “clothed.” He 
is also represented as “poured out,” to 
indicate his freeness : “ Behold, I will 
pour out my spirit unto you.” (Prov. 
i. 23.) He is represented as “ filling,” 
or taking complete possession of. It 
was predicted of John the Baptist, “ He 
shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” 

72 


HOIV MAY I RECEIVE HIM? 


And to be “ filled with the Spirit ” is 
far more a scriptural expression than 
to be “ baptized with the Holy Ghost.” 
John the Baptist, Elizabeth, Zacharias, 
Jesus, Stephen, Barnabas, and Paul were 
all " filled with the Spirit,” and we are 
told to be “ filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 
v. 1 8.) There is a distinction here well 
worth our consideration. To be “ bap- 
tized with the Spirit” may mean a 
pentecostal experience, a great rush of 
feeling, a change as great in the be- 
liever as the change from night to day. 
Not many people have such an experi- 
ence, and for that reason multitudes are 
deprived of the real blessing of the 
Spirit’s presence. To be “ filled with 
the Spirit” may be almost the opposite 
of such an experience as that referred 
to. Mr. Meyer says that you can fill a 
73 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


cistern with water just as surely by let- 
ting little drops of water fall into it as 
by pouring in great hogsheads of water. 

There are really two parts to the re- 
ceiving of the Holy Ghost. First of all 
there is the baptism of the Spirit, as 
found in I Corinthians xii. 12, 13 : “ For 
as the body is one, and hath many 
members, and all the members of that 
body, being many, are one body: so 
also is Christ. For by one Spirit are 
we all baptized into one body, whether 
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
bond or free ; and have been all made 
to drink into one Spirit.” The second 
part is described in Acts i. 8 : “ But ye 
shall receive power, after that the Holy 
Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall 
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, 
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and 
74 


HOIV MAY I RECEIVE HIM ? 


unto the uttermost part of the earth.” 
This is power, and depends upon one’s 
moral condition. According to this out- 
line, then, every child of God has re- 
ceived the baptism of the Spirit; he is 
also, because of this, a member of the 
body of Christ. This experience can 
never be repeated; so, then, it is un- 
scriptural for the Christian to be talking 
about the baptism of the Holy Ghost 
when he has already received it : but he 
may be filled with the Spirit and then, 
because of his moral condition, lose the 
power of the Spirit, as we find the dis- 
ciples doing. They were filled in the 
first chapter of Acts, and in the fourth 
chapter of Acts, thirty-first verse, it is 
said again that “ they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost, and they spake 
the word of God with boldness.” If 
75 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


you will study the second and third 
chapters, you will find that the disciples 
had lack of courage, and for that very 
reason had lost their blessing ; but when 
the Spirit came upon them again, they 
became possessed of the very thing in 
which they had been lacking.* There 
is, therefore, one baptism, many fillings?) 
The Holy Ghost as certainly abides in 
us as that Jesus Christ is seated at the 
right hand of the Father. We need 
only to remove the hindrances in order 
that he may manifest his power; so, 
therefore, “Take ye away the stone.” 

I am persuaded that to be “ filled with 
the Spirit ” we must make a complete 
and definite surrender and then trust 
him to do his work. He will, doubtless, 
begin in some little way to manifest 
his presence, just as it were drop by 
76 


HOIV MAY I RECEIVE HIM? 


drop. To-day a new pathos in the 
voice, to-morrow a new touch of the 
hand, and so on day by day, till his 
presence in all its fullness will be a 
blessed reality. The first step, how- 
ever, in this blessing, as the first step 
into the “life of the eternal,” is a step 
of faith. I used to be greatly troubled 
by the recitation of personal experiences 
in many of the public meetings. One 
would say, “ I was converted such a 
year;” another, such a month; another, 
such a day or hour; and to me it was 
discouraging, for I could not tell the 
year, much less the day. But I am dis- 
tressed about it no longer, and for two 
reasons : First, I should know I was 
living physically even if I did not know 
my birthday, and I may know that I am 
living spiritually even though I do not 
77 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


know when I “ passed from death into 
life.” My second reason is found in 
the fact that I have a better experience : 
I have had my eyes opened to the truth 
of the Spirit; and if you will allow me 
to choose between the man who has had 
a definite experience in conversion, and 
knows little of the Holy Ghost, and the 
man who may be uncertain as to the 
time of his conversion, but knows about 
the third person of the Trinity, I will 
choose the latter every time, for I am 
certain that I may be a Christian and 
not know when I crossed the line, but I 
cannot be a Christian with an experi- 
ence of power until I know something 
definite about the Holy Ghost. 

What vague ideas and views we have 
concerning him ! We think of him as 
coming and going, with us to-day, away 
78 


HOW MAY I RECEIVE HIM ? 


from us to-morrow. We pray for his 
outpouring. We cry out in sermon, in 
song, and in prayer, “ Come, Holy 
Ghost,” as if he were still in the skies, 
when the fact is that he abides with us 
ALWAYS and is nearer to us than our 
right hand. He may not always be 
manifesting his power, but that is be- 
cause we have placed some hindrance 
in the way. In a sense, there is a two- 
fold bestowal of the Spirit, but it is like 
this, quoting from Dr. James H. Brooks 
in his work on the Holy Spirit : “ We 
are told that on the evening of the same 
day that our Lord arose from the grave, 
* when the doors were shut where the 
disciples were assembled for fear of the 
Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, 
and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 
And when he had so said, he showed 
79 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


unto them his hands and his side. Then 
were the disciples glad, when they saw 
the Lord. Then said Jesus to them 
again, Peace be unto you : as my Father 
hath sent me, even so send I you. And 
when he had said this, he breathed 
on them, and saith unto them, Receive 
ye the Holy Ghost.’ (John xx. 19-22.) 
No one can imagine that these solemn 
words were uttered in vain, or that the 
disciples did not then receive the Holy 
Ghost. It makes the language and 
action of our risen Lord all the more 
significant when we remember that this 
is the only place in the New Testament 
where the word rendered f breathed ’ 
is found, and that the Saviour never 
elsewhere is said to breathe on any one." 
The other was the bestowal of the Spirit 
at Pentecost, when they were qualified 
80 


HOIV MAY I RECEIVE HIM ? 


as witnesses. Hence there is a twofold 
bestowal of the Spirit: one secret and 
inward, within closed doors as it were ; 
the other open and outward in its man- 
ifestations. The former is never re- 
peated; the latter is repeated over and 
over according to the measure of our 
faith and of our desire. The former 
was Christ's gift to his servants ; it was 
a special blessing for a special purpose. 
The latter was in fulfilment of the prom- 
ise, “Ye shall receive power, after that 
the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and 
ye shall be witnesses unto me.” (Acts 
i. 8.) 

One word needs to be sounded over 
and over again if we are to be the 
recipients of this blessing. That word 
is “ surrender.” The very moment we 
have fulfilled this condition then rest 
81 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


assured that he will begin the manifes- 
tation of himself. We are not to sup- 
pose that we may mark out the channel 
in which he is to run, for the WILL must 
be given up in this as in other things. 
It is generally supposed, however, that 
to be filled with the Spirit always 
means power from the human stand- 
point, and this is anything but true. It 
always means power ; but power in the 
estimation of God may mean defeat in 
the thought of men. It is to be remem- 
bered that Peter was “ filled with the 
Holy Ghost,” and preached the sermon 
at Pentecost, while Stephen was “ filled 
with the Holy Ghost,” and was stoned 
to death : one was as great a victory in 
the sight of God as the other. 

Not infrequently the children of God 
go mourning after this blessing and find 
82 


HOIV MAY 1 RECEIVE HIM? 


it not, and for the reason that they are 
seeking the consciousness of the bless- 
ing rather than the Spirit himself. We 
have nothing to do with the conscious- 
ness : we are to have faith in God, be- 
lieving in the indwelling Spirit when 
with great emotion and much enthusi- 
asm we are working, as well as when 
without either we do his bidding. 
Consciousness of power may be a very 
dangerous thing. There is hardly an 
old horse with which we are familiar 
which we would be willing to drive if 
that horse were conscious of his power. 
He could break away from us in an in- 
stant — but he is not conscious. We 
have the consciousness, and he has the 
power, and so we guide him whitherso- 
ever we will. Let us just believe God, 
and let him be conscious of all that we 
83 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


may accomplish. It is ours just to be 
submissive. 

I. HOW MAY I RECEIVE HIM? 

First. One of the most important steps 
with which I am familiar is this : do not 
seek to know him, first of all, that you 
might teach or preach with power. This 
is not the way to the blessing. Again, 
do not seek to know him that you may 
have the peace of which others have 
spoken who have known him in all his 
fullness. This is not the first step. But 
rather, bid him abide in you, that, first 
of all, HE MAY HAVE POWER OVER 
YOURSELF. He is the fire, and will, 
if allowed, burn out the dross. He is 
the water, and he will keep the temple 
clean. Then only may we expect to be 
84 


HOIV MAY I RECEIVE HIM? 


used. Mr. Moody has so many times 
said : “ God does not seek silver ves- 
sels, and he does not require gold ones 
for his service, but he must have clean 
ones.” 

Second. The second step has already 
been indicated. It is this : SURRENDER 
FULLY. To give up ninety-nine parts of 
the nature and withhold the hundredth 
is to put a hindrance in the way of Uie 
blessing. If a contagious disease had 
been raging in a certain house, and you 
had a desire to live in the house, you 
know that you would not do it until 
every room had been purified. If every 
room but one had been fumigated, and 
that the smallest room, you know that 
you would not occupy the house. Nor 
will the Holy Spirit work with power 
in the life till it has all been surren- 
85 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


dered to him, till it has all been made 
clean by true confession: then make 
ready for the blessing which God has 
promised. I can remember when God 
opened my eyes to this truth. I had 
been struggling for five years, I had 
had visions of his power and glimpses 
of what I might be if I were “ filled 
with the Spirit,” but all this time, like 
the disciples at Ephesus, there was a 
great lacking. At last I reached the 
place where I felt that I was willing to 
make the surrender. I reached it by 
the path marked out by Mr. Meyer when 
he said : “ If you are not ready to sur- 
render everything to God, are you ready 
to say, ' I am willing to be made willing 
about everything ’ ? ” That seemed 
easy, and alone before God I simply 
said, "I am willing.” Then he made 
86 


HOW MAY I RECEIVE HIM? 


the way easy. He brought before me 
my ambition, then my personal ease, 
then my home, then other things came 
to me, and I simply said, “ I will give 
them up. ” And last of all my “ will ”was 
surrendered about everything. Then 
without any emotion, for, as Mr. Meyer 
said, it was “ faith without emotion,” I 
said, “ My Father, I now claim from 
thee the infilling of the Holy Ghost.” 
From that moment to this he has been 
a living reality. I never knew what it 
was to love my family before, I ques- 
tion if they ever knew what it was to 
love me, although we had called our- 
selves happy in the love of each other. 
I never knew what it was to study the 
Bible before, and why should I? For 
had I not just then found the key? I 
never knew what it was to preach be- 
87 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


fore. “ Old things are passed away ; ” 
in my Christian experience, “ behold, all 
things are become new.” 

Third. The third step is found in Paul’s 
letter to the Galatians, where he says: 
“ That we might receive the promise of 
the Spirit through faith.” (Gal. iii. 14.) 
You will notice that it does not say, 
“That we might receive the Spirit 
through faith.” It is often so quoted. 
This would be unscriptural, for we have 
the Spirit. He is with us to abide for- 
ever. It is just to believe his word ; and 
the third step is one of FAITH. We say 
to the man seeking Christ, and yet who 
hesitates because he is without feeling 
— we say to him, “ It is faith first, then 
feeling after;” and so we say to all who 
seek the infilling of the Holy Ghost, 
“Receive the promise by faith.” 

88 


HOW MAY I RECEIVE HIM ? 


These steps do not of necessity fol- 
low in logical order, for the last may 
be first if one so desires ; but the next 
step suggested would be this : keep 
your eyes fixed upon Christ. There 
is an Old Testament illustration of 
tl)is. When Elijah and Elisha were 
journeying toward the place of the 
translation, you will remember that the 
people came out at Bethel, Gilgal, and 
other places, and entreated Elisha to 
tarry with them for a season, and 
Elijah said, “ Tarry, I pray thee, here.” 
(2 Kings ii. 6.) “ And he said, As 

the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liv- 
eth, I will not leave thee.” (2 Kings 
ii. 6.) “And it came to pass, when 
they were gone over, that Elijah said 
unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for 
thee, before I be taken away from thee. 

89 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a dou- 
ble portion of thy spirit be upon me. 
And he said, Thou hast asked a hard 
thing : nevertheless, if thou see me when 
I am taken from thee, it shall be so 
unto thee ; but if not, it shall not be so.” 
(2 Kings ii. 9, 10.) Suddenly, as they 
talked, the chariot of fire appeared, and 
Elijah became a passenger. I suppose 
Elisha was too greatly surprised to speak 
at first ; then he cried out, “ My father, 
my father, the chariot of Israel, and the 
horsemen thereof.” (2 Kings ii. 12.) 
And Elijah dropped upon him, I imag- 
ine, the old mantle, for it is said that 
he took it up. Suppose he had wrapped 
it around him, saying, “ How comfort- 
able it is!” what benefit would it have 
been? But he did not do this. He 
had his reward when the old mantle fell 


HOW MAY I RECEIVE HIM ? 


upon him. He simply stood on the 
banks of the Jordan and used the man- 
tle as his master had used it, and the 
waters parted as before. We are given 
the Spirit not that we may consume 
him upon our own lusts, but in order 
that we may be in this world as Jesus 
himself. Do you remember his words, 
“ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
believeth on me, the works that I do 
shall he do also ; and greater works than 
these shall he do ; because I go unto my 
Father”? (John xiv. 12.) What is this 
but Elijah and Elisha again? Here is 
the secret of it all: KEEP YOUR EYES 
FIXED ON A TAKEN-UP MASTER. Eli- 
sha had the spirit of his master before. 
I suppose he had followed him so 
closely that, he had absorbed the very 
spirit of Elijah ; but it was the double 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


portion he was seeking, and that he re- 
ceived. So it is with us if we are in 
Christ: we have the indwelling Spirit; 
but we need, and we must have, the dou- 
ble portion, and this comes with a knowl- 
edge and appropriation of the Spirit, 
which every one may have in Christ. 

II. SUGGESTIONS. 

It may be helpful to ask the ques- 
tion, “ Why have I not received him?” 
This may be for many reasons. 

First . It may be because we have dis- 
obeyed some clear command of the Mas- 
ter : if at any time in the past we have 
broken a thread in the weaving of a gar- 
ment, we need not expect to know about 
the fullness of the Spirit until we have 
made the past right with God. If it was 
an unkind word spoken, an inconsistent 
92 


HOIV MAY I RECEIVE HIM} 


action which caused another to stumble 
or fall, if it is some unforgiven sin, then 
make it right; and then, too, it is not 
enough to get right, as we often hear, 
but we must keep right. And there is 
no way by which this may be so easily 
accomplished as just to be quick to obey 
God’s least commands. Be very sensitive 
to his leadings and teachings ; offer this 
prayer of David’s : “ Search me, O God, 
and know my heart : try me, and know 
my thoughts : and see if there be any 
wicked way in me, and lead me in the 
way everlasting.” (Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24.) 

Second . The second suggestion may 
be embraced with the first, but it is 
made distinct, at least for the sake of 
emphasis. It may be that the difficulty 
is found in the fact that you have not 
confessed your sin. In a western city 
93 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


a gentleman approached the evangelist 
laboring in the city with this question : 
“ Can you tell me why it is that I have 
no power in my Christian life? I have 
a class of men in the Sunday-school, 
and have had for three years, and have 
never been able to lead one of them to 
Christ.” The evangelist replied, “ It 
may be because your heart is not right 
with God, and that you are hiding some 
sin.” The man’s face became pale, and 
then in the secrecy of the minister’s 
room he made his confession : “ Twelve 
years ago I was a clerk in a mercantile 

establishment in the city of P . One 

night in balancing my books I had two 
hundred dollars for which I could not 
account; my books were balanced, but 
the money was there. The books bal- 
anced the next day and the next week, 
94 


HOW MAY I RECEIVE HIM ? 


and the money was still not accounted 
for. Then the devil came to me to say, 
‘ Use it ; no one will ever know it, and 
you can put it back.’ God pity me! I 
took it, and all these years I have had 
it. Here it is,” he said, handing it to 
the evangelist. “ I cannot take it,” he 
said ; " you will have to make restitu- 
tion.” The man sprang to his feet, ex- 
claiming : “ I can never do it. I have 
a position now worth twenty thousand 
dollars a year to me, and I should lose 
it if I were even suspected of being dis- 
honest in the past.” “ It is either resti- 
tution or no power,” said the evangelist. 
The man was still for a moment ; then, 
rising to his feet, he exclaimed, “ I will 
do it if I die.” He made his way to the 
city where the wrong had been com- 
mitted, into the private office of the man 
95 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


against whom he had sinned, and made 
confession. The Christian merchant list- 
ened to his words ; then, rising, he closed 
the door of the office, and said, “ Let 
us pray about it." They fell on their 
knees, and when the prayer was offered 
the merchant said to him : “ Go back 
to your work, and God’s blessing go with 
you. I forgive you just as freely as he 
does." The man came back to his home 
with his face shining. The next Sunday 
he sat down before his class to tell them 
of Christ. He said to them : “ I never 
knew till this week why it was that I 
could not win you for Christ. I have 
now found out. It was because I was 
not right myself.” Then, turning to his 
class, he made such a plea as he had 
never made before, and with the result 
that every member of his class accepted 
96 


HO IV MAY I RECEIVE HIM? 


Christ as Saviour, and a few Sundays 
after joined the church of which he was 
a member. It is very easy to under- 
stand why. He had simply gotten right 
with God, and then the Spirit, who had 
been abiding in him all the time, used 
him ; and that is always the Spirit’s way. 

Third . Again, it may be that we 
have too little communion with God 
in his Word. Have you not always 
noticed that when one knew his Bible 
he knew the Spirit well ? It is the pov- 
erty of the knowledge of the Word of 
God that makes us poor in our under- 
standing of the Spirit. He inspired 
holy men of old to write the Book. Why 
should we not know him if we know his 
thought? When one of our Christian 
philanthropists was presiding, a number 
of years ago, at a great Peace Congress in 
97 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


Washington, in the midst of their delib- 
erations a company of Indians came in. 
They were asked to speak, and through 
an interpreter an old chief made the fol- 
lowing remarks : “ We have come here 
to see the Great Father, the President. 
We have come to ask him to help our 
people.” And then looking about on 
the crowd assembled, he said : “ Our 
people are not like yours, our women 
and children are not like yours, our 
homes are not like yours. Can you tell 
the Indian,” he said, “ what medicine he 
must take to make him right? ” Then 
Major-General O.O. Howard, who was 
a member of the congress, the man who 
wears an empty coat-sleeve to the honor 
of his country, the man who is a loyal 
soldier of Christ as well, sprang to the 
speaker’s desk, and with his one arm 
98 


HOW MAY l RECEWE HIM? 


raised aloft the Bible, exclaiming, while 
every one was thrilled : “ Mr. Speaker, 
tell him this is the Good Medicine.” 
And it is. It is the medicine to make 
right the world’s wrongs ; it is the 
medicine to purify the heart; and to 
know this is to know the Spirit, while 
to know the Spirit is POWER. 



RECEIVED 
YE THE 
HOLY GHOST ? 


WHAT OF 
THE RESULT? 







Cap IV 


WHAT OF 
THE RESULT? 


“ But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 
Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be witnesses 
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” 
— Acts i. 8. 

T) EFERRING again to the river from 
the sanctuary, we get the best an- 
swer to this question. The river ran 
into the desert. The Spirit of God al- 
ways leads us into the world, that we 
may go to the lost and tell them of life, 
bidding them in the name of Christ and 
on the authority of the Word and by 


103 



RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


the power of the Spirit to believe in 
him, that their position may be changed 
— a good illustration of which is Mephib- 
osheth. He dwelt at Lo-debar (which 
means “ the place of no pasture ”), but 
through the kindness of David, for Jon- 
athan’s sake, he is brought to the king’s 
table that he may have plenty. The 
river was healing, for we read that, 
running into the sea, the waters thereof 
were healed. The river was life-giv- 
ing : “ And it shall come to pass, that 
everything that liveth, which moveth, 
whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall 
live.” (Ezek. xlvii. 9.) It is fruit-pro- 
ducing and food-providing. What a 
river it was ! But there was one thing 
it could not do, namely, change the 
marshy places : “ But the miry places 
thereof and the marshes thereof shall 
104 


WHAT OF THE RESULT? 


not be healed; they shall be given to 
salt.” (Ezek. xlvii. n.) The Spirit 
does not come to improve man’s carnal 
nature. “ That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh,” and always will be. But 
all that the river does, as described 
above, we may have repeated in our 
lives. Our position is “ in the world, 
but not of it.” We have had placed in 
our keeping for wounded hearts the 
very balm of Gilead. We have the 
words of eternal life, we have the very 
bread of heaven — in fact, we have all 
things in Christ. There would be a 
marvelous change in the church as well 
as in the individual if only we were 
“ filled with the Spirit.” We have to- 
day in the church men enough, and 
they have money enough, and, humanly 
speaking, we have power enough to put 
105 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


to flight the enemy, if only we were 
“ filled with the Holy Ghost.” 

I have a friend in New York City, a 
most remarkable woman. She has 
turned away from her social position, 
given up, for the time being, her home, 
with the full consent of her family, and 
devotes all her time and her strength to 
the rescuing of “fallen girls.” She has 
literally prayed up the Door of Hope, 
an institution which is a refuge for all 
such ; and there is never a night so dark 
or so long but the doors of this home 
are open for the wanderer. One night 
at midnight, leaving her home, going 
out on an expedition through the slums 
of New York, she held in her hand a 
beautiful pink rose. She said to one 
of her friends, “ I will give this rose to 
the vilest girl I meet in my wanderings.” 

106 


WHAT OF THE RESULT? 


She made her way to Mulberry Street, 
a place which is a veritable hell. It is 
the place where men and women go 
when all hope has fled from them and 
they are ready to throw themselves into 
perdition. In one of the subcellars, sur- 
rounded by some of New York’s worst 
characters, was the girl whom Mrs. 
Whittemore, in her mind, had been seek- 
ing. This was the description she gave 
of her : her hair was torn out as if she 
had been in a recent brawl, as they found 
out afterward she had ; her face bore the 
marks of sin ; her clothing hung in rags 
from her poor, thin shoulders ; her feet 
were pressing their way through her 
old shoes; her eyes were as blue as 
the sky, and for that reason she was 
called by her companions “Blue Bird.” 
As my friend stood looking at her, she 
107 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


told me that the vilest profanity she had 
ever heard was falling from her lips. 
She pushed her way through the crowd 
of men, and placed in the girl’s hand 
the pink rose, saying as she did so : “ My 
dear, if ever in your life you want a 
friend, come to the Door of Hope, and 
I will be a mother to you.” The girl 
at once replied, “ I’m too sinful to be 
saved or helped.” But Mrs. Whittemore 
left her that night with the prayer that 
she might come. Several days after, 
just as my friend was going into the 
Door of Hope, she found Blue Bird, 
looking more miserable than before. 
The first thought was one of dis- 
couragement, and the second almost a 
determination to put her out into the 
street, for it did seem impossible, even 
with God, to help her. Then she said : 

108 


IV HAT OF THE RESULT .? 


“ I looked down at her in her misery, 
and thought, There is a soul for whom 
Christ died, and if she had been the only 
lost one in the world he would have suf- 
fered and died for her. Then I forgot her 
sin and saw her soul. I forgot her mis- 
ery, and my heart was filled with love 
for her. I stooped, and taking her sin- 
stained face in both my hands, I kissed 
her first upon one cheek, then upon the 
other, and that broke her heart ; she fell 
sobbing before me. We put her in 
bed, nursed her back to a semblance of 
strength, and then she went forth, her- 
self a missionary, down into the Mul- 
berry Street dives, out into Sing Sing 
prison, everywhere where she felt that 
she might win a soul for Christ. She 
went by day and night. After a few 
months of active service God called her 
109 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


to himself, but she had been instrumen- 
tal in leading over one hundred girls 
like herself into the knowledge of a 
Saviour.” I asked my friend, Mr. Had- 
ley, Jerry McAuley’s successor in the 
old Water Street Mission : ” Mr. Had- 
ley, how did Blue Bird look: was she 
beautiful?” His reply was: “ If you 
had seen her face in repose you might 
have said that she was homely, for her 
face still bore the marks of her sin; 
but,” said he, “ if you had seen her in 
the Water Street Mission, and heard 
her tell the story of her conversion, and 
then seen her stand with face uplifted, 
as if she were looking into the very face 
of Him who had made her free, and 
heard her as she repeated his name over 
and over — ‘Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!’ — 
you would have said, I am sure, that she 
110 


WHAT OF THE RESULT? 


looked like an angel.” Then I asked him, 
“What was the secret of her power?” 
He gave me two reasons. “ First of all,” 
he said, “ she was fully saved; then after 
that ” he said, “ she was filled with the 
Spirit. Blue Bird had never a thought 
of her own ; she belonged to him body, 
soul, and spirit.” And when he told 
me that, I said : “ Blessed God, if thou 
canst take a poor fallen girl and so fill her 
with thy Spirit that she could be trans- 
formed into a soul-winner, thou canst 
fill me;” and I believe he can — nay, 
more, I believe he did ; and what he has 
done for one he can do for all, for, as has 
been said, he is no respecter of persons. 

But there are certain particular results 
which would be manifest in the life of 
every one who would give the Spirit 
undisputed possession of his life, 
ill 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


First. We should know God better: 
“ For what man knoweth the things of a 
man, save the spirit of man which is in 
him ? even so the things of God knoweth 
no man, but the Spirit of God. Now 
we have received, not the spirit of the 
world, but the Spirit which is of God; 
that we might know the things that are 
freely given to us of God. Which things 
also we speak, not in the words which 
man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the 
Holy Ghost teacheth ; comparing spirit- 
ual things with spiritual. But the natural 
man receivth not the things of the Spirit 
of God : for they are foolishness unto 
him : neither can he know them, because 
they are spiritually discerned.” (i Cor. 
ii. 1 1-14.) 

Second. We should be better able to 
apprehend Christ, for you will remem- 
112 


WHAT OF THE RESULT ? 


ber that the Spirit came into the world 
to testify of him. There is a hint of 
this in the very course of the river 
which ran from the sanctuary. There 
would have been no point at all if any 
other direction had been given as the 
course of the river, but the east is most 
significant. The camp of Israel was al- 
ways pitched toward the east — the sun- 
rising — because Israel was looking and 
longing for the coming of the Messiah. 
The east is connected with the resurrec- 
tion and with the coming glory of Christ. 
What can the course of the river signify 
but the fact that the Spirit always runs, 
if we may so speak of him, toward Christ ? 
— to know one is to know the other. 
Do you not remember that when Jesus 
breathed on the disciples and said, “ Re- 
ceive ye the Holy Ghost,” it was after 
113 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


His resurrection? Was he not then, 
in the gift of the Spirit, just giving 
them the first taste of “ resurrection 
life ” for themselves ? And this is, in 
fact, what the indwelling of the Spirit 
may mean for every one. We are 
“ risen with Christ,” and the Spirit just 
reveals to us what that means. And 
yet with all the joy that is imparted 
here in this present time, this is but the 
earnest of what is coming by and by. 
He is called the Earnest, as, for exam- 
ple : “ Now he which stablisheth us 
with you in Christ, and hath anointed 
us, is God ; who hath also sealed us, and 
given the earnest of the Spirit in our 
hearts.” (2 Cor. i. 21, 22.) An earnest 
is often represented as a pledge, but this 
does not give the real idea. It is rather 
part of the purchase- money, paid down 
114 


WHAT OF THE RESULT ? 


as the guaranty and security that the 
full amount will be handed over at the 
time stipulated in the contract. The 
meaning, then, is simply this : all that 
the indwelling Spirit may have meant to 
you in the past in the way of sweetness 
of experience, depth of joy, delight in 
communion, or manifestation of power 
— these things are just the foretaste of 
what is coming after a while. When 
the fullness of time is come, if this is the 
first-fruit, then what must the harvest 
be? Here we have thought about him, 
he has come to us in the night visions, 
we have said over and over his dear 
name, but then we shall see him and 
we shall be like him. 

“Well, the delightful day will come 
When my dear Lord will bring me home, 
And I shall see his face. 

115 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST ? 


Then with my Saviour, Brother, Friend, 
A blest eternity I’ll spend, 

Triumphant in his grace.” 


Third. There will be growth. This 
would naturally follow because of what 
we have found the Spirit to be. He is 
the wind, the dew, the rain, and many 
other things, all of which induce growth 
in the natural world. There will be a 
growth downward : “ Rooted and built 
up in him ” (Col. ii. 7) ; growth up- 
ward : “ Into him in all things, which is 
the head, even Christ” (Eph. iv. 15); 
growth outward in all the fruit of the 
Spirit. I am sure that, with this thought 
of growth in mind, many of the trouble- 
some questions in the life of the church 
might be settled. Paul had this in mind 
when he said, “ When I was a child, I 
spake as a child, I understood as a child, 
116 


WHAT OF THE RESULT? 


I thought as a child: but when I be- 
came a man, I put away chil.dish things.” 
(i Cor. xiii. II.) 

Try the question of the so-called 
popular amusements of the day with 
this idea of growth in mind. See how 
quickly it could be settled. It is not 
to be denied that there is a certain 
kind of pleasure in some of the things 
which are manifestly inconsistent in 
the lives of professing Christians. But 
it is just as true that the real Chris- 
tian has in his life that which is far 
beyond the mere pleasure of the world 
— that they are not comparable : but 
there must be growth to appreciate 
this. You remember the island of 
which we read in mythology — the isl- 
and on which the sirens sang so 
sweetly that when a ship would come 
117 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


near its sailors would be charmed with 
the music. They would leave their 
posts of duty, and the vessel would be 
wrecked on the rocks. Then the sirens 
would put forth from the island to gather 
the spoil. One day a vessel neared the 
island having Ulysses as commander. 
He filled the sailors’ ears with wax, and 
bade them fasten him to the mast, and 
then forbade their releasing him, what- 
ever his commands might be under the 
spell of the music. When they neared 
the island it seemed as if the sirens had 
never sung so sweetly. Ulysses strug- 
gled to be free ; he shouted to the sailors 
to let him go, but they did not hear him, 
and they would not let him go. They 
passed the island in safety. This was 
one way of going by. It is the way 
some would have us settle the question 


IV HAT OF THE RESULT ? 


of “ amusements for the church.” But 
there is a better way. Another vessel 
came near the island of the sirens. The 
officers did not order wax to be placed 
in the sailors’ ears, neither was the com- 
mander fastened to the mast. The sirens 
sang their sweetest songs, they played 
their most entrancing music, but the 
sailors did not turn their heads to listen, 
and for this reason : they had Orpheus 
on board, and Orpheus sang a sweeter 
song than the sirens ever knew. Thanks 
be unto God, we may have Orpheus on 
board : we have a peace the world can 
never know! But the ear must be 
trained to hear the music. Just as when 
Jesus was on earth, at one time it was 
said: “Then came there a voice from 
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, 
and will glorify it again. The people 
119 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


therefore that stood by, and heard it, 
said that it thundered : others said, An 
angel spake to him.” (John xii. 28, 
29.) I believe it was the voice of God 
to him — what some called thunder, and 
others an angel’s voice. He called the 
voice of God to himself; they heard 
with their ears, he with his soul. 

There is something very suggestive 
to me in the fact that the river in- 
creased in depth as it ran to the sea. 
“And when the man that had a line 
in his hand went forth eastward, he 
measured a thousand cubits.” (Ezek. 
xlvii. 3.) At this first measurement the 
“ waters were to the ankles.” I use my 
ankles to walk with; I could hardly 
walk without them ; and I believe it to 
be a hint, at least, of the fact that when 
one has been filled with the Holy Ghost 
120 


IV HAT OF THE RESULT ? 


he will manifest the fact in his daily 
walk. What is it to walk in the Spirit? 
It is to have him so enthroned in the 
soul, and to live in such habitual and un- 
interrupted communion with him, that 
we do not take a step without his direc- 
tion. It is to recognize his abiding 
presence, to heed his slightest sugges- 
tion, to be lifted into a purer and sweeter 
atmosphere than that which surrounds 
the world. The second measurement, 
and the “ waters were to the knees.” I 
bow the knees to pray. No one really 
knows how to pray until he knows the 
Spirit. How often we wonder why our 
prayers have not been answered! I 
doubt not but that the real reason could 
be found just here : we did not ask in 
the right way. “ Likewise the Spirit 
also helpeth our infirmities : for we 
121 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST .? 


know not what we should pray for as 
we ought : but the Spirit himself mak- 
eth intercession for us with groanings 
which cannot be uttered.” (Rom. viii. 
26.) The third measurement, and the 
“waters were to the loins.” The loins 
are always in the Scripture the symbol 
of strength, and what can this suggest 
but that the Spirit is the strength of our 
life? With him temptation is easily 
met, burden-bearing becomes a delight, 
and we can do all things just because 
he fills us. “ Afterward he measured 
a thousand; and it was a river that I 
could not pass over : for the waters were 
risen, waters to swim in, a river that 
could not be passed over.” (Ezek. xlvii. 
5.) There is one thing about swimming 
which every swimmer knows, namely, 
this : when he swims he brings into play 
122 


IV HAT OF THE RESULT? 


every muscle of his body — not one is in- 
active. Thanks be unto God, the Spirit 
may sway every power of my being : the 
heart purified, the mind quickened, the 
soul uplifted ! He gives me a new name, 
a new song, a new hope — in fact, “ old 
things are passed away the very world 
itself becomes new. 

But one of the very best things we 
read about the river is this: “And by 
th£ river upon the bank thereof, on this 
side and on that side, shall grow all 
trees for meat, whose leaf shall not 
fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be 
consumed : it shall bring forth new fruit 
according to his months, because their 
waters they issued out of the sanctu- 
ary : and the fruit thereof shall be for 
meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.” 
(Ezek. xlvii. 12.) There was new fruit 
123 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


every month — what a river it must have 
been ! I do not know anything better 
about the Spirit than this : he brings not 
only things old, but things new, before 
us. We shall not need to live on old 
manna if we have him. We shall not 
need to be rehearsing old experiences 
told a thousand times if we know him ; 
but the world will be a new world, the 
Bible a new book, all things will wear a 
different face to us, if we be “ filled 
with the Spirit.” I know of no better 
illustration to make plain what his in- 
dwelling may mean than that which has 
been given us in the life and death of 
one of earth’s noble women. Over in 
London, some time ago, a noble woman 
died. God touched her eyes, and they 
were closed ; her heart, and it ceased its 
beating. They carried her into one of 
124 


WHAT OF THE RESULT ? 


the greatest auditoriums, that the city 
and the world might pay her honor. A 
representative of the Queen honored 
herself by being present. Lords and 
ladies were there; the rich people of 
England came to look and weep. At 
last the poor people came pressing their 
way into the great building. The weep- 
ing thousands passed beside the sleeping 
woman. At last a very poor woman 
made her way down the aisle. She had 
every mark of poverty ; she carried a 
child on one arm, and led another by 
the hand. When she reached the coffin 
she put the baby on the floor, loosed the 
clasp of the older child’s hand, and then 
stooped to kiss the glass which covered 
the face. She thereby stopped the 
passing of the throng. The guard, step- 
ping forward, took her by the shoulder, 
125 


RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHOST? 


saying as he did so : “ Woman, you will 
have to move on ; you are stopping the 
people.” She lifted her face to his 
for a moment, and then, turning to the 
surging mass of people in the building, 
she cried out : “ My friends, I will not 
move on! I have walked sixty miles, 
and carried my baby, that I might look 
upon this woman’s face. She saved my 
boys from hell, and I have a right to look 
and to weep.” Then bending down she 
kissed again and again the glass cover- 
ing the face, while the multitude sobbed 
in sympathy with her. Who was she 
sleeping in the coffin yonder? Why, 
that was Mrs. Booth, the mother of the 
Salvation Army, one of the grandest 
women God has ever called into his ser- 
vice, and I am sure you know why : not 
because her social position was better 
126 


IV HAT OF THE RESULT? 


than yours, for that might not be true ; 
not because her intellectual qualifica- 
tions were superior to yours, for that 
might be untrue ; but because she was 
filled with the Holy Ghost. That is 
always the secret of power. 


127 










MAR 13 1912 













Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 

I70a\ 770.91 1 1 















